Two Arrested in Fatal Crossbow Attack

MANILA, Calif. (CN) – A man next to the highway with an arrow in his hip led deputies to another man 200 yards into the forest with an arrow in his face, deceased, sheriff’s deputies responding to a 911 call in rural Humboldt County reported. A witness called in reporting two people fleeing on bicycles, just after Humboldt County Sheriffs found the 41-year-old man on the shoulder of Highway 255 with scalp and shin wounds and an arrow in his hip Sunday. The witness described a white man in his twenties and a teen girl, who may have been black, who then ditched the bicycles and ran into the Manila Dunes forest when a witness chased them, the Sheriff’s Office said. In this heavily wooded area between the far northern coast of California and Humboldt Bay, deputies found a deceased 44-year-old man who had “suffered a single arrow to the face,” a sheriff’s statement said. A multi-agency manhunt ensued, involving agents from the California Highway Patrol, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Arcata Police Department, the Bureau of Land Management and the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, authorities said. Two people fitting the suspects’ descriptions then walked past the Friends of the Dunes Nature Center, its executive director Carol Vander Meer told Courthouse News. “When I looked at them, they stopped and started walking north,” at which time she had someone call 911, she said. A SWAT team was already on its way to survey the area and officers arrived within 5 minutes, she said. Authorities captured and arrested 20-year-old Phoenix Triton King and the 16-year-old girl with him, the next day, officials said. The girl’s name is being withheld because of her age. They are suspected of shooting two men with a crossbow, Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office reported. Both the suspects and the victims are homeless, officials said, as they revealed, “the motive for this incident appears to be the belief of the suspects that the victims may have stolen items from their transient camp.” The victims’ names have not yet been released. Investigators found two crossbows in deep brush 150 feet from where the deceased victim fell, Wednesday, a sheriff’s update said. Sheriff’s Office representatives were not available for comment by press time.